raven72d's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Libertine, Never Libertarian I'm reading Alfred Duggan's "The Little Emperors"-- about a Roman bureaucrat in Britannia c. 400. It's a clever enough little novel-- about a man trying to keep his job, attend to his wife's ambitions, live up to his own vision of what being Roman means, and keep the government running as Roman administration in the province begins to unravel. It's sad and funny by turns, and it's not a bad story. I think what made me want to read the story is that someone at Amazon wrote a review about his own hatred of Rome, and especially of post-Diocletian Rome. The reviewer was a smug, gibbering libertarian-- a type more appalling even than Mahometan jihadis or Chomskyite leftistas. The reviewer ranted on about how life under the barbarians was better than life under late-Roman rule because the Picts and the Goths were more in tune with individualism. Oh, dear God... Wherever is Dexter when we need him? Let's be clear. Whatever the government of late-fourth century Rome was like, it's always better to be on the Roman side of the border than not. Civilisation, the Oecumene, Romanitas--- those things make life better and more humane than whatever's across the frontiers in the forests or out on the steppes. I like societies that are well-ordered, well-structured, and well-administered. Order and structure are keys to any society-- to any worthwhile existence. Today on C-Span 2 there was coverage of a Fiftieth Anniversary celebration of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". I remember reading it when I was fourteen or so. I was rather pleased with myself for plowing through a twelve-hundred page novel in four summer days. But when I was done, all I felt was...annoyed. I'd hoped the book would be good apocalyptic sci-fi-- like, say, Geo. R. Stewart's "Earth Abides" --and it wasn't. And I found the characters to be...all of them obnoxious. I really did find all of them appalling creations, and I wanted to take a tire iron to each and every one of them. All I could think of was that "Atlas Shrugged" had taken four days of my summer away from reading and re-reading "Story of O" and reading through the "Hornblower" novels. As much as I dislike leftistas and multiculturalistas, I could never be an American conservative. I could never be a religious/social conservative, since I'm an atheist and a libertine. (Wait-- not quite a complete atheist, since I do believe in Sanrio Shinto, and I'm waiting for Hello Kitty's twin sister Mimmy, Destroyer of Worlds, to return on the Day of the Muffled Oar and Smite the Amalekites) I listened to David Horowitz (ex-Trotskyite turned rabid right-winger) this morning on BookNotes and just shuddered. Horowitz at least hasn't adopted the Evangelical part of American conservatism, and he does believe in fighting the vile, insolent Paynim. Those are good things. But he has that angry moralism about him that always sets my teeth on edge. I could never be a conservative if you have to adopt that shrill, moralising tone. Mr. Smylie and I agreed on this once at the Zeppelin Pilots' Club: we could be old-school Tories, but never American conservatives, and never, ever, ever libertarians. Libertine, never libertarian. We could've followed the younger Pitt, but never anyone at the Manhattan Institute or the Cato Institute. I suppose I've always seen politics as a kind of performance art. I feel the same way about religion, of course. I admire the Latin Mass and archaic Catholic ritual as performance art, though I believe in none of the items of the Nicene Creed. I see politics as always having a strong aesthetic element-- style, let's say. Being able to wear a good tweed blazer and not look out of place-- that's a style clue that a political organisation may have something about it that I'd like. I dislike leftism and libertarianism and American conservativism because I dislike their look, and because I dislike the kinds of people each of those cults attracts. If I had to define my own concrete political beliefs, they'd involve social programs and a strong safety net at home, and a hard line and the mailed fist abroad. Universal health care at home, bombs for the jihadis abroad. I have no clue where that puts me in terms of American politics. I just want to know if I can get a good tweed blazer out of any of it. Alessandra at bel_ebat wrote me to say that one day while sitting in a geology lecture, she did the wi-fi ("wiffy") thing on her new little MacBook and ordered a digital camera-- a Canon Powershot sd1000. She's vur' pleased with it. I miss the days of 35mm film, but I'd like to try a digital camera. And I do trust Alessandra on these things. I may yet trust her on a MacBook...though the clever and loved little K-dot at citydress does think I should get a new Dell laptop sometime in the Spring... Now--- does anyone have any clue where Christian at McEarstix has gone? Is she in the States? Is she still alive? I will have to grill a small steak tonight and watch "Sansho the Bailiff". And of course finish "The Little Emperors"... My plans do include convincing Caitlin to add books at GoodReads.com--- I do want to get more of a feel for what she reads. I only wish that Ms. Chang was adding books there, too-- and CloverSt from Diaryland. Meanwhile... I must think of ways to enjoy the autumn. I'd like to go with the Small Sea Otter to have blackened alligator and Dijon mustard sauce at the Zeppelin Pilots' Club--- though she must wear one of her pashminas if we go. And if I am going to travel by horse and Bactrian camel across Nuristan to Balkh', I'll need to memorize poetry by Hafiz. I'll ask Trish at kissingverlaine about that. Just as I must get KdG at k_navit to finally do my Tarot for me this autumn... 3:36 p.m. - 2007-10-13 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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